Missions built foundries, introducing the Indians to the Iron Age, with blacksmith furnaces that smelted and fashioned iron into nails, crosses, gates, hinges, and cannons for mission defense.

In 1821, Spain lost California to Mexico after its war of independence; but instead of a republic, Mexico set up a monarchy with Augustin Iturbide as Emperor.

Iturbide was executed, and Mexico adopted a Federal Constitution in 1824.

In 1833, General Santa Ana became President and, together with Vice-President Gomez Farias, instituted the anticlerical Mexican Secularization Act, which took all mission property away from the Catholic Church and sold it to political supporters of his government.

In 1834, General Santa Anna suspended Mexico’s Constitution and declared himself dictator. When several States opposed him, he crushed the resistance.

His ruthless actions precipitated the Texas War of Independence (1836) and the Mexican-American War (1846.)

After the war, California was purchased by the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

In 1849, workers in California, building a sawmill for John Sutter on the south fork of the American River, discovered gold. Soon, prospectors, called “Forty-Niners,” arrived.

California became the 31st State on SEPTEMBER 9, 1850. Its Constitution, which prohibits slavery, stated: “We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom…do establish this Constitution.”

Regarding California Missions, the U.S. Board of Land Commissioners wrote, as recorded in W.W. Robinson’s book, Land in California (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1948, p. 28):

“The Missions were intended…to be temporary…It was supposed that within that period of time the Indians would be sufficiently instructed in Christianity and the arts of civilized life.”

On May 23, 1862, President Lincoln restored all 21 California missions taken by Mexican Secularization Acts back to the Catholic Church:

“I grant unto the…Bishop of Monterrey…in trust for the religious purposes…the tracts of land described in the foregoing survey.”

Though Spanish Missions were an integral part of California’s history, in 2004, Los Angeles County succumbed to pressure from the ACLU and removed from its county seal a tiny cross.